


Shrinkage

by JayBarou



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fountain of youth trope, M/M, Secret Relationship, and fluff, but not too much, hopefully, secret relationship discovered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 01:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2673548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki has a golden apple for Tony. Steve doesn't like what he sees and the fragile magic of the apple ends up affecting both humans in the resulting fight. After the light, there are no heroes, but two six-year-olds in oversized T-shirts. Loki needs to sort this out quickly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shrinkage

Jarvis was supposed to alert everybody of any threat in the tower and he was supposed to warn Tony if someone came to his floor. Unfortunately, Jarvis was down for the count thanks to a debugging reboot prompted by the last (failed) attempt at hacking him from Hydra. For that very same reason, when Steve went up to the penthouse looking for Tony, his presence went unannounced and he could hear two voices; Tony's and one that he had not expected to hear ever again.

He was not surprised, though, really. After all, if Fury, Coulson, Bucky and Red Skull could come back from the dead (and himself, truth be told), why wouldn’t a Norse deity do the same?

Steve hid himself on the corner, out of sight and already planning. Loki had probably known that Jarvis was off and he had decided to strike when they were down, one by one, and starting with what he thought was the weakest link of the team. Steve pulled out his phone to call for help, but it was out of battery.

Biding his time, he listened to Tony, who was probably trying to stall the vengeful god.

“How did you get this!” his friend almost shouted.

“Does it matter? Nobody was hurt and that should be all that matters to you.”

Tony was oddly silent for a stalling human against a powerful god.

“It is not the only thing that matters to me. Did you get hurt?” Wait, what? That sounded like real concern out of Tony's mouth “Should I prepare a suit to kick some god ass when Idunn comes wanting revenge on our immortal selves?”

To Steve’s surprise, the God laughed.“‘Immortal selves’, Tony? Does that mean you accept my gift?”

Tony had the tone of voice that usually went with a smirk. “Sure. You'd find the way of making me eat it anyway; I’m surprised you didn’t trick me.”

“Well, admittedly, I have been looking up apple pie recipes recently.”

Steve couldn’t believe his ears, so he tried with his eyes. He got out of his hiding spot to see the god resting his head on Tony's shoulder and with both arms around his torso from behind. It looked affectionate, but Steve knew better, there had to be a spell on Tony, who was looking amusedly at the god over his shoulder and held a golden apple in his hands, about to bite it. Steve let instinct take over.

"Tony!"

In three steps he was on the other side of the room, taking the apple from the inventor's hand. Tony was not going to let that happen, and neither was Loki. There wasn't a fight, just a short stumble until the golden surface of the apple, still in the hands of both superheroes, hit the counter with a crack, more similar to the sound of a china cup breaking than a piece of fruit.

A blinding light engulfed the room and when Loki opened his eyes there were two bundles of clothes too big for the pair of children that were before him.

"Nothing can ever go smoothly with us, Tony?" Loki face-palmed.

The blond boy looked around him, at his clothes, at himself and started to sniff the air. The brown-haired boy looked around too, but quickly focused his silent attention on Loki.

"I'm not tired. I can breathe! Is this a dream?" The young soldier's eyes met Loki for the first time. "Are you a doctor? I'm cured?"

"I'm not a doctor. I’m Loki," Loki said while he decided on a plan of action.

"Then why do I feel healthy?" Steve was almost jumping with contained energy.

"Maybe you are healthy?" Loki tried.

"Why?"

"Probably because the serum works even now."

"Why?"

"Because this doesn't take into account body changes."

"Why?"

Loki took his eyes from the young captain, knowing a losing battle when he saw it, in favor of Tony, who was unusually quiet. Tony seemed to squirm and disappear under Loki's scrutiny, as if he was trying to make himself smaller than he already was.

"Do you know each other?" Steve bounced around, stepping out of the enormous pants.

Loki was not concerned about the captain, but strangely enough, Loki couldn't catch Tony's eyes, the boy started to talk nonetheless.

"I'm Anthony Edward Stark. I'm six. I love my mummy and my daddy. When I grow up I want to be an inventor. If you want a phone to get a ransom, the number is ..."

"What are you saying, Tony?" Loki worried.

"He is a kidnapper?"

Steve ran from where he was to put himself between Loki and Tony in an untrained stand to fight. Tony kept saying numbers behind Steve's back.

"I'm not a kidnapper," Loki tried to reason.

"That’s exactly what a kidnapper would say," Steve said mockingly.

"Hey!” Tony stepped out of Steve’s shadow. “I don't need help. I've been told what to say and do. I must say mummy and daddy instead of Maria and Howard. I must say good things so the bad guy feels bad for hurting me. I must ... " He rattled the list that someone probably made him memorize.

"I'm not a kidnapper," Loki repeated.

"Why else would you want me," Tony shouted, and then he squinted. “Oh! but I don’t know Mr Stark’s passwords,” the boy looked at Steve discretely. “And I don’t know enough about the serum to make it work. Although it looks like you already made it work.”

Steve ignored Tony and stepped between the kid and the kidnapper again.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Loki tried to make Steve understand.

Steve obviously didn’t believe him. The kid kicked Loki’s shin, pulled Tony’s hand, and ran (surprisingly fast for two boys in oversized t-shirts) away while Tony shouted.

“No! Father won’t like it if I don’t follow the rules. The teacher said to negotiate and befriend, not make them nervous, not look at their faces …” The shouts were muffled after the loud bang of a door.

Fortunately, it was the bedroom door and not the stairs. Unfortunately, the room was dark, so the next thing he heard was “What is that blue light!?” Then Steve-sounding-chaos “A bomb! That is a bomb! We have to take it out!” And after that, sounds of a chase.

Loki came close to the door, but he knew that they would panic if he opened it.

“It’s not a bomb, silly. I’ve seen what father’s bombs look like,” came Tony’s voice from the other side.

“Children.” He crouched in front of the closed door.

“We don’t talk to kidnappers,” said Steve immediately.

“Tony, listen to me, I can explain.” Loki knew that the adult Tony wanted to understand more than he wanted safety, always, he hopped his Tony was still there. The resulting silence was not very reassuring.

“You say you are not a kidnapper. Are you a friend of my father?” Tony was very close to the door now. Farther into the room, the other boy shout-whispered ‘don’t talk to him’ over and over.

“I’m your friend, Tony. I don’t know your father.”

“But I don’t know you!” and Tony added quietly: “and I’m not allowed to have friends that are not my father’s friends too.”

“Tony, there was an accident. A few minutes ago you were as old as me,” true enough “but your other friend interrupted and something went wrong, so now you are smaller.”

“But the …” There was sound of skin on skin, probably a hand against a mouth.

“Lies. That is impossible.” Now Steve’s voice was close to the door as well.

“Well, how do you explain the big clothes then?” Silence again, with the noise of a quiet fight inside.

“No” “Don’t!” “but he is” “trick” “right” “wait” Were the only words he could understand, and the high pitched voices didn’t help to distinguish both boys.

The handle turned and Loki found himself face to face with the same brown eyes that had become so familiar, same curiosity, same pull, but in a face with all the wrong expressions and without his beard.

“You are my friend?” Loki nodded and Tony bit his lip. “Can you explain this?” Tony pulled the too big neck of the shirt and Loki contained a gasp so he wouldn’t startle the boy.

“That is your reactor. Does it hurt?”

Tony seemed hesitant. “Yes.”

Loki was not surprised. The spell had reduced the reactor, but not enough. It was pushing the ribs, the muscles and the skin in ways that had to be painful, especially for such a small kid.

“Why didn’t you say so?” Loki muttered as he pulled the shirt a bit and sent an analgesic spell. He couldn’t modify it right now, who knew how the magic could interfere?

“It is not bad enough to complain. But what is it?”

“It is a machine you put on your chest, like a mechanical heart.” Loki was not sure of how much the kid knew, but if he could avoid explaining the workings of an electromagnet to a six-year-old, he would.

“You want us to be adults again, don’t you?” Tony said opening the door wider with a serious face; Steve could be seen shuffling under the bed, but he didn’t come out or made a noise. “I’ve seen films like that. Can you do it?”

“I think so.”

“Do you need something from us?”

“Probably not.”

“Then why are you wasting your time?” Loki frowned at the words, but it wasn’t a reproach or an order. Loki had the sneaking suspicion that Tony’s father had directed those words to this kid until it was the first thing to come to his mind.

“Well, I couldn’t leave you two here alone and scared.”

Now it was Tony’s time to frown. “Yes, you could.” And it was said so matter-of-factly that Loki had to swallow the urge to throttle Howard Stark.

“He is saying the truth?” Steve crawled from under the bed.

“Yes.” Tony turned to the other boy. “I have seen several things that look too modern. We must be in the future.”

“That is great!” The kid came to the door. “Sorry for saying you are a kidnapper, sir.” The kid went out of the room and off to explore the rest of the penthouse.

“Are you going to work in a way to grow us up now?” Tony asked.

“WHAT IS THIS?” said a voice from the hall.

“I’m going to try.” Loki rolled his eyes as the blond boy trotted back with a remote control in his hand. “That is a remote, Steve, it is used to give orders to different machines, go to put it where you found it.”

“Could …” Tony said next to him when Loki stood up. Loki waited patiently until the child stopped wrinkling his t-shirt and shuffling his feet. “Could I watch you?” Tony looked at him as if expecting a refusal.

“Of course, Tony.” Then he offered his hand for the kid to take, but Tony didn’t take it, saying that he was too old for that.

They settled in the living-room once Loki picked up the apple back from the floor. Loki sat cross-legged on the couch and Tony wrapped his arms around his legs, sitting very close to him and giggling softly.

“What is so funny, munchkin?”

Tony looked back at Loki, trying to decide if he had gotten himself in trouble for laughing. Loki’s face was not angry, so he risked it.

“You are working on the sofa. Father always works in his workshop, this is weird.” Loki was glad of finally seeing something like a smile.

“You are not going to say anything about the apple?” He summoned a magic tool, a welder that the adult Tony had always wanted since he saw it for the first time “or about this?”

Tony said no with his head. “I saw a magician once, and there is a trick, and all the science that comes from father’s workshop is like magic too. I will understand all the tricks one day.” Loki laughed and he made sure to keep it quiet, because this version of Tony was much more fragile than the one he had met. Loki didn’t want the kid to think that he was laughing at him.

“If only your older-self had been as open-minded as you with my magic.”

Loki started to work on the first crack, but Steve came and went several times with different objects for Loki to explain. Not long after that, the boy got bored and then Loki had to leave the couch because Steve had decided that he had to test his new healthy body with acrobatics.

His huge T-shirt was not made for acrobatics.

Loki summoned new clothes of his size, like Asgardian garb, because he was not all that familiar with human infant clothes and went back to the couch, only to find Tony with the welder in his hand. When he came closer and took both apple and welder from his hands, the kid jumped. “Sorry! I thought that I could help now that I’ve seen you do it. And since the boy is interrupting, I thought maybe if I… Sorry!”

Loki breathed slowly now that Tony was out of danger. He summoned similar clothes to Steve’s for Tony before inspecting the damage done to the apple. Some of the cracks were gone; there was hardly any difference with his own work. Loki sighed, sat cross-legged again and sat Tony in the gap between his legs. Then he put the welder in one of the small hands and the apple in the other.

“That was a very good job, Tony.” Tony looked ecstatic in his lap and, if Loki was not mistaken, he was flushing red. “You need to put your hand closer.”

“But this is where you put it.” Tony complained faintly.

“Your hands are smaller, the counterweight …” Loki moved his hands to cover and guide Tony’s.

“Oh! I see!”

They were welding for about two minutes, until Loki realized that the other boy had been too silent. Steve was not far, only in the kitchen, on his tiptoes, balanced on the counter to take something from the top of the fridge.

Loki groaned and with a gesture of his hand the boy flew over their heads and was strapped to the closest armchair.

“HEY! So you ARE a kidnapper after all.” Steve said, fighting the binds. Tony giggled softly again. “I was only taking that packet there. I was hungry; I thought that you would be hungry too, so I was going to bring it as a surprise.”

A noise alerted him of the presence of someone climbing the stairs, probably the Avengers looking for their two missing friends. Loki had to leave _now_ if he wanted the counter-spell done in a day. He didn’t want to let Tony in that body if the reactor was causing trouble. Then again, leaving the children alone with what were only strangers to them would be a very unfortunate decision.

“Boys, some of your friends are going to come now. They are going to be very afraid, so you need to explain them what happened very carefully. Ok?” Steve nodded, Tony looked worried.

“Do you have to go?” Tony had very big brown eyes; very dangerous in Loki’s opinion. The same eyes that had made him stay in the tower with the mad genius instead of running away.

“We are friends, remember? I’ll come back for you.”

Tony seemed less sad, but nowhere in the vicinity of happy. Loki couldn’t do anything else with the steps approaching that quickly, so he hugged tightly the boy before disappearing.

When the Avengers came in, there were two six-year-olds in Tony’s living room: one of them laughing on the floor and the other sitting on the couch.

“You went all red! You like him!”exclaimed the boy on the floor.

“He was good,” was the answer of the one sitting on the couch.

“You make it sound like nobody ever hugged you.”

The Avengers, or what was left of them, could have been bewildered, but they faced stranger things everyday and the light from under one of the boy’s strange clothes was clue enough for them.

“Steve?” Bruce then looked at the composed boy on the couch “Tony?”

Steve came close with a big smile to greet them. For some reason, they expected a full report from the little boy, but what they got was an “I’ve been told that we are friends. Are we?”

Thor immediately took the position of big brother that he had wanted to fulfill since Loki left and Steve looked delighted at every single thing they did and played. Meanwhile, Tony was just as lost in the pair’s games as the others, so he didn’t notice when Natasha sat next to him.

“Tony ...” The boy looked at her and there was no trace of the cocky smile of the billionaire. “Tony, what happened?”

“An experiment went wrong.”

Natasha didn’t have a very good motherly instinct, but what she did have was experience interrogating all kind of witness, and she knew when someone was about to close up to her. She didn’t press the issue; instead she let Bruce take over and he offered dinner. Tony was not hungry, but Steve had heard the invitation and was eager to taste food of the future. Tony went down with them if only to avoid staying alone in the penthouse.

The adults ordered hamburgers and Steve tried to bug them to play with the toys of the future, what they called the videogames. Clint set up the TV, the controllers, and put several cushions on the floor for the kids. Steve took the one to Clint’s left, but Tony refused to play or sit on the floor. Instead, the boy sat himself at the back, next to Natasha and Bruce, who were not playing children games.

Both adults expected questions; about the controllers, about who they were, about what happened to his parents … but Tony looked like listening from the sidelines was enough for him.

When the fast food arrived, they ate it in the playroom while Clint interrogated Steve subtly.

“So how come you are little now?” Or not so subtly.

“I don’t know, the way I see it, I’ve always been little. Yeah! Out of the road!”

“No you haven’t. This morning you were bigger than me.”

“Bigger than you?!” Steve sounded both fascinated and distracted.

“Aha. So what happened?”

“I told you,” interrupted Tony, speaking almost for the first time in the evening. “An experiment went wrong.”

“Yes, what he says, but Loki explained it better.” Steve said with a sharp gesture of his controller.

There was a collective gasp; Tony tensed visibly in his seat.

“Loki is alive?” Thor was, of course, the first to speak.

“huh … yes.” Steve said still playing against Clint.

The archer, however, had stopped paying attention. His cart was out of control and Steve won easily, throwing his arms in the air and shouting. Noticing the sudden silence, Steve turned to them.

“Did I say something bad?”

“Loki did this to you?” Thor asked.

“No. Tony thought that he had kidnapped us, but he wasn’t. He explained that we were big, and the experiment.”

“We need to secure the tower. Clint, you know the protocol, I’ll go to see if I can speed up the reboot.”

“No! No!” Came Tony’s voice, slightly scared and very angry, directed at Steve “Why did you have to say that?!” The adults suspected he was about to throw a tantrum and finally do something Stark-like, but the kid kept talking quietly. “He was helping us, and he left when they came. They hate him, don’t you see? and now we are stuck because he won’t come back. And they won’t help us.”

Steve seemed to ignore the hurt tone of the boy and came closer to poke his side with a smile.

“You only say that because he hugged you.”

“Why are you so silly! No, it is not because he hugged me! It is because he wanted the older me back! The old Tony has friends and does experiments! Maybe you can stay and be you, and play silly games and do silly things, but father always says that that is bad.” The boy was angry and hurt and none of the adults knew how to deal with that, but Steve was not far behind.

“I’m not silly! You are silly! I’ve been trying to play with you the whole day! I have not been able to play in the street in forever. And you were just with Loki and that golden apple.”

“A golden apple?” Clint asked Steve. “ _The_ infamous golden apple?” he then asked Thor.

All the adults had heard about the fruit when Odin refused Thor’s request, once, twice and every time that Thor came crestfallen from the golden halls again. Bruce, however, had caught something else of the conversation.

“Tony, why do you think we won’t help you?”

The alluded boy turned to the other scientist with a defiant look. “You can’t.” And as soon as it had come, the defiant look left his face. “You don’t know how. If you had any idea, you would have done something already instead of just asking questions and playing games.”

“Guys! But why was there an _accident_ with a _golden apple_ and Loki, of all people, involved?” The question was directed at Thor, but the god was still muttering ‘but I saw him die.’ under his breath.

Natasha was about to answer, but Steve had been paying attention and he chimed in. “Tony is no fun at all and I still think he hates me, but he is right. Loki has been good to us, he has explained everything and he was helping. You can’t treat him like he is the bad guy.”

“Look, you don’t understand, but he _is_ a bad guy,” Clint said self-assuredly.

“Why?” Steve countered.

“Because he tried to destroy New York,” Clint explained further.

“Why?”

“Because he is a lunatic! That’s why!”

“But why?” Clint didn’t answer fast enough, so Steve continued. “Has someone asked him why he did it? My mum always says that I should speak before fighting. She says that I should understand why people do what they do before fighting.”

“Steve, sometimes there is no reason,” Bruce sighted tiredly.

“No.” He took Tony’s hand. “We are going to find Loki.” Steve ran out of the room; this time Tony wasn’t just dragged along, but he run next to him with more purpose and barely a token protest. Now Steve knew the door to the stairs, having used them to go to the playroom, so he headed there.

Both kids ran downstairs with two assassins, a scientist, and a god in tow. As soon as Steve realized that the adults were going to catch them in no time, he opened the first door he could find and closed it behind them.

Tony and Steve found themselves in an office. There were not many people, since it was already late, but there was always someone dealing with foreign customers. The two boys hid themselves under the first desk they could find, to the astonished looks of the workers. The rest of the Avengers came in and they spread around to look for the kids. Clint was the first to find them and the pulled Tony out easily, but when he went for Steve, the boy fought back.

Clint was stronger than him, even with the serum working, so he put the smaller version of Captain America over his shoulder. Unfortunately for Clint, Steve knew how to shout.

“Help! This man wants to take me away! He wants to do bad things to us!”

The people working at the office looked up from their work. A woman stood up, carefully assessing the situation and she came closer.

“Is there any problem, sir?” She acted politely, but she was gesturing to Tony to come with her.

“No problem ma’am, these brats thought they could run away.”

“May I ask where their parents are?”

“That is confidential,” said Natasha, who had rushed to Clint’s side when Steve shouted with Thor and Bruce close behind.

The woman was making more emphatic gestures to Tony, who only walked a few steps in her direction, but was not sure of what to do.

“Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!” Steve shouted and kicked over Clint’s shoulder.

“I think that boy wants you to let him go,” said the woman with a tone of warning.

“They are witnesses, we are only trying to protect them,” Natasha tried to placate her.

“That is not what this looks like,” the woman retorted. “I’m calling security.”

“We are Avengers! For the … We are trying to help!” Clint said at his wit’s end.

“Yes, well, weren’t you SHIELD too? For all I know these kids could be mutants and you could be Hydra. Put the kid down or I’ll call security,” the woman didn’t budge.

A vicious kick of Steve decided for him and Clint put the boy down on the floor to hold a bruised rib. Steve pushed Tony along and they hid behind the woman’s legs.

“Look … what’s your name?” Bruce tried, having seen the whole conversation.

“Bethany Cabe, but don’t use my name to try to convince me of anything.”

“Fine, Ms Cabe, these boys are not safe right now. They have one of our enemies after them; we need to take them somewhere safe.” The woman didn’t look convinced.

Natasha crouched again, talking to the boys. “What if we promise to let your friend in?” Steve was going to answer, but he looked at Tony first and Tony looked surprised of being consulted.

“No.” Tony murmured to Steve.

“Why not?” asked Bruce.

“You will catch him if he comes. You will put a trap and kill him when he has helped. I’ve seen films.”

Steve had widened his eyes, like the idea of a lie hadn’t even crossed his mind, then he looked at the Avengers with a frown, but said nothing.

“What if we promise to let him come, help and go free when he is done?” Natasha tried again.

Steve let Tony think and talk again, but the boy with a light in his chest didn’t relent. “He won’t come. He won’t be back now that you are around.”

“Actually …” One of the workers who were closer to them (one of the background workers that they hadn’t noticed) stood up from his rolling chair. He was wearing a simple shirt, regular trousers, not even a trace of green beside his eyes: completely blended with the background.

Steve’s face lit up and he ran laughing to hug Loki’s hips, because not being a kidnapper and having Tony’s approval seemed like the way to be in the kid’s good graces. And Loki had Tony’s seal of approval, even if he didn’t run to him like Steve. Tony walked with poise to the trickster even though he had hesitated to go to the woman. He looked into Loki’s eyes with the admiration any six-year- old reserved for superheroes. Loki was not used to such a look.

“You came back.”

“I told you, didn’t I?”

Tony was going to say something more, but Steve wanted to be picked up —never mind that he was too old for such things— so Tony shied away from talking. Loki balanced the blond kid on his hip and rested his free hand on Tony’s nape, because the kid wouldn’t allow anything childish, but the contact helped to calm him down.

Only then did Loki look up to see the other Avengers ready to fight for their comrades.

“Maybe we should move this somewhere more private,” Natasha pointed out, a hand ready to go for a gun.

Loki needed some time to work the spell; there was no other way but to go along the heroes' way. The trickster nodded and walked to the group on the other side of the hall, but Tony pulled his shirt and made him crouch to whisper in his ear “Promise you have a way to get out.”

Loki smiled warmly and reassuringly and whispered back “promised.”

Then Steve broke the whispers asking loudly “Why do you have long hair? Doesn’t your mum cut it?” while he played with a long strand.

“Of course his mum doesn’t cut it, silly!” answered Tony “He is a grown up. He must be a hippy!”

There was laughter, but Loki wasn’t sure of where it came from.

“What is a hippy?” went on the small super soldier.

“Why don’t you know what’s a hippy?” followed the inventor.

Loki ignored both of them and turned to the woman, Bethany Cabe, and offered his hand, which she shook gladly, apparently not recognizing him from the invasion.

“Thank you for your help. Your courage would put many seasoned warriors to shame.”

When Loki tuned in to the children’s conversation, they were discussing what was the meaning of _make love, not war_. Loki was not going to explain _anything_ to two children who would be adults again very soon, so he walked to the group of heroes without answering uncomfortable questions.

Thor tried to talk to Loki as the Avengers herded him and the kids back to the stairs from a reasonable distance.

“I thought you dead,” Thor complained.

“... again,” Loki muttered.

“What happened?”

“Well, I lived, obviously.”

“What happened _with them_?” Bruce interrupted the banter before it could escalate.

“And why is there a fucking golden apple involved?” Clint added.

“I know the answers to that. Answer this: can you turn them back? both of them?” Natasha countered.

Loki eyed the Black Widow warily. “Of course, both.”

“What do you mean you know the answers?! Tasha?!” Clint seemed affronted by the revelation.

Natasha wasn’t forthcoming and Loki thanked the small gesture, even if everything was bound to go south as soon as the children were adults again. When they reached a living room, Loki put Steve down and the boy ran to the couch. Tony chose to linger around the trickster, but Loki went after Steve too and gestured for Tony to sit next to him.

Loki sat in front of them, on the coffee-table. He made a swirl with his hands and the boys were already in their old clothes, then he produced two iridescent and long gemstones and gave one to each boy. The other Avengers settled around the couch, arms crossed, or with some other defensive stance. Loki had to keep a hand on one of Steve’s legs to keep him from leaving to explore some more.

“What are you doing, exactly?” Bruce worried.

Loki was not going to answer, but the children were nervous as well and hearing the steps would probably calm them.

“When the apple cracked, there was an energy spill. Their bodies absorbed that energy and channeled it to this change. The apple is just a receptacle; it needs to be whole to contain the magic.”

“That is why we had to fix it!” Tony almost shouted, sounding entranced by the explanations. He was kicking his legs on the edge of the couch.

Loki smiled back and continued talking. “And we need a way to force the excess of magic from your bodies and minds back _into_ the apple.”

Tony looked at the gemstone in his hand. “This?” he asked Loki. The sorcerer nodded and Tony smiled wider than they had seen since he had been shrunken. Loki produced the golden apple, a move that gained the attention of the adults, but not that of the children. “So, we need something to suck the energy back through the conductor,” Tony deduced.

“That would be me,” Loki pointed out.

Tony shuffled closer to the edge of the couch to whisper to Loki again “Is this going to be long?”

Loki frowned “Yes, probably, it depends on how much energy there is in you.”

“Then, can you do what you did before? I know you did something.” Tony splayed his hand on his chest. “It hurts again.”

Loki sent a spark his way and pretended that everything was fine, but it didn’t escape him, that Tony didn’t trust the other Avengers, or that the kid had ran downstairs and climbed back up without complaining, or showing it, even though the machine not only hurt, but had probably reduced his lung capacity.

Fortunately, all of this would be over soon.

Loki instructed the children on how to place the gemstones and he started the process. It took far longer because compressing magic in a small vessel was harder than simply releasing the energy.

The other Avengers took shifts to control the process, but everything went smoothly. At one point the children suddenly filled their clothes and Loki only had to cut the flow of magic. The now-adults looked confused for a few seconds, and then Tony clapped his hands and stood up at the same time as Loki.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, the show is over, let’s do that never again.”

“Wait, Tony, you have an awful lot of explaining to do.” Steve stood up too.

“Loki, if you are waiting for a signal to get out of here, it is now,” Tony said deceptively cheerful.

“No,” Loki answered calmly.

“You promised you had a way out,” Tony said looking at his friends, his back to the sorcerer.

“I’m not letting you, what is your phrase? face the music alone.”

“Tony, you knew that my brother was alive? And you didn’t tell me?” Thor sounded offended.

“I don’t kiss and tell, Bolt,” Tony said with a wink.

“He offered _you_ the apple?! Because you are together?” Clint was scandalized, but his bow was not tense, so Tony counted that as a win.

“You already knew, Romanova,” Loki was not helping, not at all.

“I didn’t know it was apple-levels of serious,” the spider said as calmly as Loki.

“You knew?!” Clint turned accusingly to his partner.

“Why are you surprised? It’s Natasha,” Tony interjected. “ _We_ knew that _she_ knew even before _we_ knew.”

“Thor, you have no right to use that puppy face,” came Loki’s voice in an unexpected turn.

The attention of the room focused again on the trickster, who looked only a bit pissed off. Tony’s hand entwined immediately with the Trickster’s and nobody missed the gesture. Nobody missed that it calmed the god down automatically either.

“Why do you say that, Loki?” Thor still had the puppy face that they all knew.

“Are you serious?” Loki frowned and gesticulated wildly. “Have you noticed no change in your woman? Nothing? No difference from before you visited that carnival? The one of the suspicious invitations? The caramel apples? No? How dense can you be? I thought that woman was a better influence in you, but I see you’ll always be an oaf and nothing more.”

“Wait, what?” Tony turned to face Loki. “Jane had the apple before I did? How come?”

Loki probably couldn’t look apologetic even if he tried, so he went for a smirk that Tony understood better than any of the others in the room, not-brother included.

“I only had to trick her. For you I had to find the right words and the right moment to convince you with the truth.”

Tony smiled warmly and everyone present knew that there was not going to be a way to split them up, and that they could lose Tony to the God of Mischief very, very easily.

“It was not a very good timing, as it turned out.” They looked into each other’s eyes and suddenly Tony started to laugh and he pressed his forehead against Loki’s shoulder. The gesture had the undesired side-effect of giving Loki a perfect view of the other Avengers.

“Dear, could you avoid fuelling their suspicions that I poisoned your mind?” Loki said, pushing Tony lightly.

“Jarvis is going to kill us.” Then Loki covered his eyes with a hand and tried to contain the same contagious laugh that Tony was not hiding at all. “He missed the ‘coming out’” Then Tony turned to face the full glare of his friends. “He has been nudging us to tell you, guys, since his estimations of someone going ballistic on us dropped below the eighteen percent.”

“So, what, are we going to let a renowned criminal go, just like that?” Clint restarted the argument.

“We trust Tony, don’t we?” Steve assumed his commanding stance. “And Tony doesn’t trust easily, so there must be a very good reason why he let Loki in.” Steve sent a pleading look Tony’s way, and Tony gave back a cocky one.

“Of course there is,” Tony could put a joke about a big good reason that would make Clint have a fit … “and I trust him with my life.” … or he could cement Loki’s reputation until they gave a better explanation in the morning.

Clint groaned, but the other Avengers seemed placated enough.

“And now, we will take our leave,” Tony took the apple from Loki’s hand “because I’m going to test how different it feels.” He bit the apple as if it was a normal fruit. “So don’t wait up, kids.”

They had all tensed when Tony bit the apple, so nobody was quite prepared when Tony snapped his fingers and both trickster and inventor disappeared.

“That asshole has taught Tony _magic?!_ ”

Up in the penthouse, Tony kept biting the apple without saying a word, still looking into Loki’s eyes while Loki cradled Tony’s face in his hands.

“I’m going to Hellheim to find your father and kill him again.”

“Whoa, that’s grand, coming from Odin Badfather’s adopted son,” Tony said with his mouth full of apple.

“He made Thor and I compete, but we were never abandoned, and I had Frigga to soften the blows. You didn’t even mention your mother. I might find her in the afterlife too, now that I think about it,” Loki said as Tony chewed and swallowed.

“Nah, I had Jarvis.” Bite. “Also, Howard sent me to anti-abduction classes, as you have seen.” Bite “It was his way of saying he loved me.” Bite “probably.” Bite. “Or that he loved not being threatened.” Bite. “Either or.”

“Be glad he is dead.” Loki said pressing himself closer to his human.

The stem of the apple was left on a near something, Loki was not paying attention. He could only concentrate on how good the fingers in his hair felt, how he couldn’t quite bring himself to take his hands off Tony and how peaceful he felt knowing that he was not going to lose Tony in the foreseeable future.

“You know what?” Loki said into Tony’s hair “After this nightmarish day, I want a mini-Stark to spoil rotten.”

Tony took a small step backwards to look into the sorcerer’s eyes with a raised eyebrow.

“Smaller than me? You think that is possible?”

Loki laughed carelessly.

“I guess I can spoil you rotten for now.”

Tony didn’t wait, he kissed Loki with the devotion he had discovered being a child for a few hours and the experience of years of adulthood. He kissed Loki with the thousand words that he couldn’t say yet. He kissed him softly to thank him; quickly, thinking of what a great dad he would be; teasingly, to remind them what they were doing.

His hands didn’t feel any different travelling the endless and familiar planes of pale skin; there wasn’t a different taste or smell in Loki’s lips or hair. However, the scientist in Tony was just enjoying his lover’s touch without attaching labels to it, and their nights were full of magic, literally, on a regular basis, so there was no point in putting anything in neat shelves and categories when they were going to shatter those metaphorical shelves in a matter of minutes.

And his teammates knew; that didn’t sink in until later, when they had lost their clothes somewhere and found a bed, oh, wait, _their_ bed; and he realized that he had nothing to hide, that Loki could stay, that he didn’t need to worry about steps on the other side of the door. In that moment, Tony breathed deeply and succumbed to Loki’s lips on his throat with a loud moan.

Being a child was exhausting, being scared was tiresome and being an adult was both scary _and_ tiring. So he was going to enjoy the perks of being an adult until exhaustion took him. He could be a serious adult again in the morning. Who was he kidding? He could be a serious adult someday in a very, very distant future.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Deansass prompt on Tumblr:
> 
> "I want a fic where Tony and Steve get deaged and the whole team (and Coulson, Fury and Hill) are not looking forward to babysitting young!Tony at all because Tony is a brat and Steve is so polite but it turns out that Tony is a really shy insecure kid and Steve is actually the sarcastic little shit."
> 
> I didn't hit all the points, and I made it frostiron, but that is not bad, right?


End file.
